Playing in the pantry
I've spent the day dealing with food. Not cooking food because I did none of that, but planning, buying, and organizing food. There were some pretty good sales going on, so I ended up going to three grocery stores today and doing a bit of stocking up. At one point, as I was in line at the cashier, a woman gets into line behind me and asks if I am having a party. She was probably a little disappointed and a little confused when I said no, it was just my usual week's shopping (which it was... I had done the stocking up in the other stores) and left it there. I don't need to explain my large family in the grocery store.
Many grocery bags later when I get home, I discover that all my stocking up groceries are going to be a little difficult to fit into the pantries. This is why, at 3:30 in the afternoon, not too long before I should really start cooking dinner, I do this:
Yes, I emptied the entire contents of the food pantries into the kitchen and dining room. Except for the things in the refrigerators and freezers, and the one cupboard which contains crackers, ramen, peanut butter, and honey, this is all the food in the house.
I cleaned, sorted, combined (don't you hate it when you have multiple items of the same thing open?), and cleaned. I did not cook dinner, other children did that, probably out of desperation. I also managed to get enough put away so that we could eat at the dining room table. After dinner, I finished up. Here is the final result:
All nice and tidy and organized again. These pantries are crazy. What you can't see, because my phone was dying and I couldn't use the flash, is that each of them go to either side by about 12 inches. Yes, that would be 12 inches of space you can use, but you can't really see and requires a contortionist to reach anything. Even though I can cram a lot of things in them, I do not like them. At all. J. was actually a little bit surprised to discover that once I had emptied them, I hadn't gone in search of a sledge hammer and removed the wall.
I was tempted. Oh, so very tempted.
So, since I didn't take the wall down to make them actually usable, let's focus on some nice things. Like this shelf:
That's 12+ gallon size jars of different beans and grains... popcorn, black beans, white beans, Bulgar wheat, farro, etc. Or how about this one?
A full shelf of canned fruit and pickles. I discovered one more jar of jam from last year as well as another pint of mulberry syrup. People were very happy. They won't last long.
I like putting things to rights. I like even more that there was very little that I had to throw out because it had gotten lost (inside the stupid pantries) and spoiled. Of course, now that I've done a bit of rearranging, I'm going to have to give tours to everyone or it will all be for nought.
Many grocery bags later when I get home, I discover that all my stocking up groceries are going to be a little difficult to fit into the pantries. This is why, at 3:30 in the afternoon, not too long before I should really start cooking dinner, I do this:
Yes, I emptied the entire contents of the food pantries into the kitchen and dining room. Except for the things in the refrigerators and freezers, and the one cupboard which contains crackers, ramen, peanut butter, and honey, this is all the food in the house.
I cleaned, sorted, combined (don't you hate it when you have multiple items of the same thing open?), and cleaned. I did not cook dinner, other children did that, probably out of desperation. I also managed to get enough put away so that we could eat at the dining room table. After dinner, I finished up. Here is the final result:
All nice and tidy and organized again. These pantries are crazy. What you can't see, because my phone was dying and I couldn't use the flash, is that each of them go to either side by about 12 inches. Yes, that would be 12 inches of space you can use, but you can't really see and requires a contortionist to reach anything. Even though I can cram a lot of things in them, I do not like them. At all. J. was actually a little bit surprised to discover that once I had emptied them, I hadn't gone in search of a sledge hammer and removed the wall.
I was tempted. Oh, so very tempted.
So, since I didn't take the wall down to make them actually usable, let's focus on some nice things. Like this shelf:
That's 12+ gallon size jars of different beans and grains... popcorn, black beans, white beans, Bulgar wheat, farro, etc. Or how about this one?
A full shelf of canned fruit and pickles. I discovered one more jar of jam from last year as well as another pint of mulberry syrup. People were very happy. They won't last long.
I like putting things to rights. I like even more that there was very little that I had to throw out because it had gotten lost (inside the stupid pantries) and spoiled. Of course, now that I've done a bit of rearranging, I'm going to have to give tours to everyone or it will all be for nought.
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